(Matthew 7:15–23; 2 Peter 2:1–3; 2 Timothy 3:1–5)
Have you ever been in a restaurant and tasted one bite of food and said, “This is horrible! I’m never eating again”? No. You don’t go back to that restaurant. But that’s what many people do with Christianity. They see a hypocrite in church, a preacher caught in a scandal, a phony teacher on TV, and say, “This is why I don’t believe in God.”
But a church full of hypocrites doesn’t prove God isn’t real; it proves His Word is true. “Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves” (Matt. 7:15). Jesus didn’t say, “Maybe one day you’ll run across a few.” He said it was going to happen.
God warned us that impostors would come. It would be smiling faces with rotten fruit. Paul said that people in the last days “will have a form of godliness but deny its power” (2 Tim. 3:5). Peter said false teachers “secretly bring in destructive heresies and, in their greed, exploit you with false words” (2 Pet. 2:1–3). So when we see hypocrisy in the church, it shouldn’t surprise us; it should remind us that God’s Word nailed it exactly.
Think of it like counterfeit money. The fact that there’s fake currency doesn’t make the real dollar worthless, it proves the real thing has value. No one counterfeits something that isn’t valuable. In the same way, Satan doesn’t waste his time imitating false religions that already deny Christ; he counterfeits the truth to confuse and deceive those who are searching for it.
So why does God allow it? He’s patient. God allows time for exposure, repentance, and testing. Hypocrites don’t destroy the truth; they expose their own hearts. “You will recognize them by their fruits” (Matt. 7:16), Jesus said. Time always tells. A bad tree can only fake good fruit for so long before it starts rotting in public view. That is why we need to know and study the bible for ourselves.
God is not mocked, and every false teacher will one day stand before God to give an account for the souls they misled. “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven,” Jesus said, “but the one who does the will of my Father” (Matt. 7:21).
So don’t let hypocrites keep you from Christ. Counterfeit Christians only make the real ones shine brighter. The failures of men don’t cancel out the faithfulness of God. If you’ve been burned by fakes, don’t give up on the truth, go back to the Word.
God’s patience isn’t approval; it’s opportunity. He’s giving them time to repent, and He’s giving you time to see who’s real.
“The Lord knows those who are His” (2 Tim. 2:19).
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